Fiery battles mark deadliest day of Ukraine protests

AlanCullison and James Marson

KIEV, UKRAINE — Weeks of stalemate between the government and protesters here were shattered Tuesday by a burst of deadly violence that provoked a massive crackdown.

Authorities stormed the activists’ encampments in the center of the capital, leading to fiery battles that lasted into the night.

At least 18 people were killed, and the number of injured climbed into the hundreds as police advanced into Kiev’s Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement, with the flash and thud of concussion grenades. As fighting progressed, so did the weaponry; many of the injured arrived at makeshift hospitals with gunshot wounds.

At a hastily assembled medical center near the gold-domed St. Michael’s cathedral above the square, doctors set up tables to treat the more seriously injured protesters.

Early Wednesday, the police were in control of almost half of the square and several floors of a trade union building, used as an anti-government headquarters, were on fire, according to Reuters. The government said seven police officers and 11 protesters had died in the violence, the Associated Press reported.

The fighting marked the bloodiest day by far since the political crisis began late last year over President Viktor Yanukovych’s pivot toward Moscow, spurning closer relations with the West.

The violence now threatens to split the country. In western provinces where pro-Europe, antigovernment sentiment runs strong, protesters set fire to police stations, seized weapons and disarmed police forces.

While the U.S. and European leaders condemned the violence and urged Yanukovych to compromise, Moscow, which on Monday announced it was restoring a financial lifeline to Yanukovych’s government, blamed the conflict on Western meddling and “radical forces” in the country.

Ukraine’s government, under pressure from Moscow to crack down on the opposition, likewise placed the blame for the violence solely on the protesters.

“Extremists from the opposition have crossed the limit—people have been killed on the streets of the capital of Ukraine,” a statement signed by the head of Ukraine’s security service and interior ministry said. It added that the government would use “all legal means” at its disposal in response.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who has talked with Yanukovych several times since the unrest began, urged him by phone again Tuesday to exercise restraint and start an immediate dialogue with the opposition.

“The Vice President made clear that the United States condemns violence by any side, but that the government bears special responsibility to de-escalate the situation,” the White House said in a summary of the call.

The fighting began Tuesday morning local time when the protesters, complaining that Yanukovych wasn’t moving quickly enough with constitutional changes to surrender some powers to the prime minister, tried to march on parliament. They were met by large numbers of riot police, and fighting quickly ensued.

While some protesters apparently arrived to battle, others leapt in spontaneously. Protesters ranging from elderly women to young men formed bucket brigades to pass broken paving stones to people nearer the police. Police responded to the pelting with stun grenades and rubber bullets.

Although police managed to clear some protesters from central Kiev, others appeared to be girding for a longer fight. Some took back Kiev’s city hall, which they had vacated over the weekend, and at least three western regions said they would send buses of reinforcements to Kiev.

Authorities, who shut down Kiev’s subway system earlier in the day, announced they would restrict all transport into the city starting at midnight.

Reuters

Interior ministry members take cover during clashes with anti-government protesters in Kiev Feb. 18, 2014.

By nightfall police, supported by armored personnel carriers and water cannons, rumbled slowly forward through barricades to the main encampment at Independence Square.

Protesters tossed burning debris — construction materials, spare tires, a discarded Christmas tree — in their path to try to stop them, and threw rocks and fireworks as opposition leaders led them in singing Ukraine’s national anthem.

Some had welded together what appeared to be a massive blow torch, consisting of pipe hooked up to a propane tank, that they dragged toward police lines. Some tents on Kiev’s main thoroughfare were also on fire.

One of the opposition’s leaders, the boxer-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko, spoke to supporters on the square: “We will not leave here. This is an island of freedom. We will defend it,” Reuters reported. He later went to Yanukovych’s office for talks, but he said he quit the meeting with the president without reaching any agreement on how to end violence, according to Reuters.

As police attacked the square, medical staff serving the protesters set up a triage unit in St. Michael’s cathedral. “Dozens of people are coming in injured and even dead from bullet wounds,” said Nina, 53, a medical volunteer, who only gave her first name. Others were injured by the stun grenades, she said.

By midnight, dozens of people were lying on the cathedral floor after getting cursory treatment. The more seriously wounded were taken to a separate building where doctors were at work.

Some arrivals had their heads covered with blood. One man with a heavily bandaged leg tried to get off a stretcher to return to the fighting. At least three corpses were seen.

As fighting raged, the Obama administration urged calm.

“We are appalled by the violence,” said Laura Lucas Magnuson, a National Security Council spokeswoman at the White House. “We continue to condemn street violence and excessive use of force on either side. This will not resolve the crisis.”

The U.S. and European Union have been at loggerheads about how hard to push Yanukovych, with the U.S. favoring punitive sanctions against top officials responsible for ordering attacks on demonstrators.

The EU has held off on such sanctions, worrying that they would only alienate the Ukrainian leadership. But European foreign ministers have debated them and Tuesday, Germany signaled they may revisit the issue.

“Whoever is responsible for decisions that may lead to further bloodshed in the center of Kiev and other parts of Ukraine should expect Europe to reconsider its previous reservation on imposing sanctions on individuals,” Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried but failed to reach Yanukovych by phone Tuesday, her spokesman said.

The U.S. and Europe have been trying to coax Yanukovych into a coalition government with his critics. While he had appeared to be receptive to such a move in January, his position lately has appeared to harden.

In the statement from the White House, the U.S. also urged Yanukovych to “restart a dialogue with opposition leaders today to develop a consensus way forward for Ukraine.”

Biden said the Ukrainian government should put forward serious proposals to revamp the government, according the summary of his call. He said the U.S. is committed to a peaceful resolution.

In earlier statements, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius denounced the “indiscriminate use of violence,” while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged “the leadership of Ukraine to address the root causes of the crisis.”

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